Pictures!!

The last few months...

A ton has happened over the last couple of months.  I am just going to list things out because so much has happened.

1. Hannah was constantly sick with ear infections.  She had three ear infections in less than 3 months.  It was so bad that we scheduled her to get tubes put in her ears.  Thankfully, after three different antibiotics, including the broad spectrum shot, her infections cleared up and we cancelled the surgery. It was supposed to happen last Tuesday (March 26).  Last week was the first week since Jan. 14 that she wasn't sick. I was going to the doctor every single week since I went back to work and it was getting really tiring.  Now her doctor and I are pretty close!  Dr. Dawn was great and really felt for us!
2. We learned Hannah is tongue-tied.  We found out when she went to the ENT.  The ENT said that we don't need to do anything about it until we put tubes in her ears but it explains why she is suck a strong sucker!! She is overcompensating for the fact she can't stick her tongue out.  But she doesn't have a problem eating or nursing so there is nothing to do right now.
3. Hannah turned 6 months old.  Her check-up went really well.  According to the percentiles, her head is on the smaller side which isn't surprising - so is Emma's; her weight is a bit above average and her height is a bit below.  She is perfect!
4. The flu - Strain A took over our house.  We all got our flu shots but that didn't stop the flu from entering our house.  Emma got sick on a Thursday night and I took her to the doctor that Friday.  I brought Hannah with me because I didn't like the way she sounded and I had the doctor check her out.  (She had double ear infections) Thank goodness my mom was coming to town that weekend - I needed her more than ever to help out!  Then Sunday Hannah and I got sick. I texted Judith that night to let her know what she was in for the next day and she texted back that she too was sick!  My mom ended up staying until Wednesday night - she nursed us all back to health!!
5. Emma's been eating like there are two of her.  She eats two dinners and downs food like it's going out of style!  She must be going through a growth spurt.
6. Hannah got her first tooth!!  Her bottom left tooth broke through on Thursday (March 28).  It's very exciting.  It looks like her other tooth is about to break through any day as well. 
7. Hannah stopped rolling over.  She's not interested in doing so anymore.  The doctor isn't concerned and said that it isn't a milestone she really cares about.  I don't know why she stopped doing it - she just did.
8. Hannah sits up all on her own now.  We worked on this skill for a while and she is really good at it.  
9. Hannah is getting so big it is ridiculous.  She has the cutest cheeks and OMG her thighs!!!  You just want to eat her ginormus thighs!!! They are the biggest thighs you have every seen.  Her rolls are incredible.  She also has twist on wrists and feet.  Her ankles don't really exist.  The crazy thing is she doesn't weigh all that much.  She weighed 16 lbs at her 6 month appointment and then when we were doing her pre-op appointment (two days before she was 7 months) she weighed 16 lbs and 3 oz.  
10. Emma's vocabulary has exploded!  She talks and sings up a storm.  She makes up some fabulous songs - my favorite is her window song.  "Open my window on the freeway.  No way, no way, Jose!"  She also sings Hebrew songs she learned at school.  She is singing Dayneu right now because of Passover.  She also loves to sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew and Spanish. Speaking of Spanish, Emma is starting to really talk in Spanish.  She used to mainly answer back in English but now she answers in Spanish a lot more.  It is really cute to hear her speak Spanish.  We are so glad that she is learning the language.
11. Emma's favorite phrase is, "do you know something?" and then she will go and tell us a story or ask something.  It is really cute.
12. Emma's behavior has gotten better.  Not a whole lot better but she is definitely being better.  She still isn't listening all the time and when we tell her not to do something it doesn't always work. But, she's a work in progress.
13. Emma loves playing "baby."  She has all her dolls and has named them.  She says they are her babies like Hannah is my baby.  It is very cute to see her do all the things to them that I do to Hannah.  She gets them dressed, they go to the potty, she takes them for walks, puts them down for naps, etc.
14. Emma can dress herself now.  She is very particular about the clothes she wears.  In fact, she has a favorite shirt - it is a short-sleeved blue shirt that says #1 Big Sister.  The shirt has a picture of two birds on it and one has a bow.  What is hilarious about this is that she calls it her kitty cat shirt.  I keep telling her she is silly to call them kitty cats because they are birds and she said no they are kitties.  The funniest thing about this is the other day Emma said to me, "Mommy, my shirt is so silly.  These kitties look a lot like birdies."  I busted out laughing!
15. Emma and her hot chocolate.  Her morning ritual is drinking hot chocolate.  It is the only way now that we get her to drink milk. She makes it herself most of the time, with some help of course, and we buy the chocolate powder.  She likes it really "brownie" on top.  If it isn't "brownie" enough she lets us know!
16. Emma is being really nice with Hannah.  She is very loving towards her.  Unfortunately, Emma doesn't know her strength and is a bit rougher with Hannah than we like.  She is learning but we still have to keep a watchful eye on her.  
17. Emma has a ton of nicknames for Hannah: Hannah Banana, Hannah Biena, Hannah Blank, Hannah Loopie
18. Emma has created her own swear word.  When she gets hurt or drops something and doesn't mean to she will say "Plumee."  It's fantastic when she says it.  Makes us laugh each time!
19. Emma got her brand new twin size bed a few weeks ago.  She loves her new bed!  
20. We broke down the real crib and moved into our room.  My dresser now lives in Emma's room.  This is less than ideal but our backs were killing us from putting Hannah down and picking her up from the Pack and Play.
21. We are in the process of sleep training Hannah.  Tonight is Day 4.  She's been doing pretty well, all considering. We are sleeping in the living room.  I sleep on the couch and Jamey sleeps on the floor.  Last night she slept till a little after 6am which was great.  She woke up twice in the night but she didn't cry.  Now she just needs to not wake up and completely sleep through the night.  We are hoping we can move back into our room this weekend.

That's all I can think of for now.  I will post some photos later. 

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

Update on Hannah's sleeping

I know I am going to jinx it but for the last two nights she has woken up only once - both times at 3:50am.  This is quite encouraging because it means she must be getting better.  We go back to the doctor on Monday for an ear check and if she is all clear than we can sleep train her.  The thought of sleeping through the night is almost too good to be true.  We are so looking forward to this!!

Update: I jinxed this!  Hannah's sleep has totally regressed since I wrote this post!  She's getting up every 3 - 4 hours and it is killing us.  Jamey is taking her to the doctor today (Monday, Feb. 11) and will talk to doctor about what to do.

Hannah rolled over!!!

Yeah!!! Hannah rolled over Monday night.  It was so cool.  Jamey and I were both home to watch this huge milestone! She was so impressed with herself. She kept doing it over and over.  She rolls on to her left side to her tummy and then is stuck on her tummy.  She hasn't rolled right to left and she can't get roll back on to her back.  She almost did this on Sunday - she was practicing hard - but she finally did it on Monday and we are so happy that she did it for us when we were home.  Now we need to be careful when we leave her places!!

I spoke too soon...

I went back to work on Jan. 14 and that's when Hannah decided to get sick.  Her sleeping through the night went out the door!  She's been waking up anywhere from 2-3 times a night and the only thing that calms her down is me nursing her.  She got a very bad cough and Jamey took her to the doctor on Tuesday (Jan. 15) and she said that her lungs were clear and we just needed to ride through this with her.

It's been really challenging with her being sick and waking up all the time - I am a ZOMBIE at work!  Who can blame me - I am lucky to get 2 hours of consecutive sleep!!

The second week back at work I had to go down to LA - Thursday night to Friday night.  I was really nervous to leave because no one has ever successfully put Hannah to bed but me.  Thank goodness she was a real trouper and was fine taking the bottle at night.  When I am around at night she has no interest in taking one so I was fearful she was going to cry herself to sleep.

Jamey and I were determined to sleep train this child when I returned from LA because we just couldn't keep getting up in the middle of the night.  Her cough was better but her sleep was worse.  I talked to the doctor to get some advice and when I told her that she still had her cough she said I needed to bring her in because a baby as young as she is can't have a cough for 2 weeks without getting checked again.  So I brought her in on Monday (Jan. 28) and found out that the poor little girl has ear infections in BOTH ears!!  We felt so bad that we didn't know.  She is on antibiotic now and hopefully she is getting better.  We have to go back after two weeks to get her ears checked again.  We really didn't know that she had ear infections because she was eating like a champ.  She was happy most of the time too - except she did start getting a little more fussy on the weekend and was making dinosaur sounds. So we were happy that we brought her in to be checked. The doctor said that we couldn't sleep train her until her ears cleared up and they better clear up soon!!! We are exhausted to the max and she is waking up earlier and earlier everyday.

Besides Hannah being sick she is doing really well.  She is growing like a weed and discovering new things everyday.  When I took her to the doctor I weighed her and she was about 15 1/2 lbs.  We had to take out the bassinet part of the pack n play. She loves to look around at everything and is easily distracted.  I used to be able to watch TV when I nursed her but I can't do that anymore because she stops, turns and tries to watch.  She has discovered her feet in the last week which is really cute.  She will play with feet and even suck on them.  She also likes to slam her feet down which can make very loud noises. When she does this we are reminded of Emma.


Last weekend, we gave Hannah oatmeal for the first time.  Her face on the first spoonful was priceless.  She didn't know what to think of it but she did eat it up.  We broke out the highchair and now she is eating her food in there.  I can't believe she is big enough to not only sit in her highchair but eat food already!! My little baby isn't such a baby anymore! The Banana has also been eating bananas as well as sweet potatoes.  She likes the food thus far!  She even will grunt saying she wants more.

Now on to Emma.  My little Emma bear.  She is having some behavior issues at school but we are trying to work through them.  She has a friend in her class names Willa and she has a love/hate relationship with her.  It is crazy - one minute they are hugging and laughing; the next Emma is trying to scratch her eyes out.  There is something about Willa that drives Emma crazy and I don't know what it is. We are working through all the behavior challenges with Emma and know that we will get through this with her.  

Emma has gotten better though with Hannah.  She can still be mean to her but she does really love her.  She is a really good helper with Hannah.  She loves to take a bath with her and help put water on her feet so she doesn't get cold.  She also likes to give her toys and loves to hold her.  It is sweet to see them together.

Emma loves her puzzles and match game still.  She is always doing them and likes it when we play the match game with her. She is also a huge singer.  She loves to sing songs and makes up her own songs all the time. She made up this one song called "Open the window on the freeway." This stemmed from her always asking me to open her window when we were about to go on the freeway when I picked her up from school.  It is a very cute song that she sings every day and has taught it to her friends.

Miracles can happen more than once

The miracle of sleep strikes again (and again).  Hannah slept through the night Thursday night again!  We were beyond ecstatic!  And it was a really good thing too because the doctor said that we needed to get rid of the nighttime feed and we needed to do it now.  She said that we should let her scream her head off for up to an hour if she wakes up at night.  She said that it could take up to 7 nights but that it was very important for her to sleep through the night.  I couldn't imagine letting her cry for so long so I was so happy that she slept through the night all by herself.  And she did it again today!!!!!  Yeah for Hannah! (and for us)